Justin,
Please don't take this as criticism, but according to your plan, it appears that you plan to run your railroad with a 100% capacity on your sidings. The rule of thumb is to use 50% capacity for your sidings so you have room to switch.

You lost me on your previous post. Why do you want to build a switching layout if you don't want to switch? I'm just lost, that's all.

If you want a simple layout, just put in the area on the left side of your plan.

Justinmiller171 Wrote:Getting track running reliably is definitely my least favorite part of this "Hobby"

And the most important....If your track isn't 100% good, you'll end up with a static display.
Been there...Done that....

i use a piece of cork roadbed soaked in alcohol to clean off grime and stuff, and use my "Track Guard" on several cars to keep dust off....

I've also put down a thin layer of alcohol every couple of inches and used an emery cloth to clean it. It really worked on some dirty brass track. It's time consuming, but handy. That's why I'm using nickle silver track. Same cleaning method, less dirty.

Mike Kieran Wrote:Justin,
Please don't take this as criticism, but according to your plan, it appears that you plan to run your railroad with a 100% capacity on your sidings. The rule of thumb is to use 50% capacity for your sidings so you have room to switch.

I will probably operate with the spurs about 75% full, I have the interchange and the storage track to act as drill tracks, Jack Hill operates with his spurs mostly full and he doesn't have a problem.

If you want more info on how I plan to operate the layout please this page:http://oscalewcor.blogspot.com/2010/02/t...tions.html

Mike Kieran Wrote:You lost me on your previous post. Why do you want to build a switching layout if you don't want to switch? I'm just lost, that's all.

I want to switch, but I don't want to just have busy industries, Consolidated Container has plenty of switching by itself, the other two industries are there for variety.

Justin, thanks for posting that link. Great illustration of operations and it was cool to see the switch list.
Ralph

Ralph Wrote:Justin, thanks for posting that link. Great illustration of operations and it was cool to see the switch list.
Ralph

Jack Hill does a good job of describing his operations, it was reading that site that inspired my layout.

That's true Justin. You want to enjoy switching the layout, not go crazy. At this point, you can run the first phase of your layout till you're ready for phase 2 (if you deem it necessary to build it at all).

As is, if you want to change anything on the sidings, you don't have to rip up the track.

Justinmiller171 Wrote:I will probably operate with the spurs about 75% full, I have the interchange and the storage track to act as drill tracks, Jack Hill operates with his spurs mostly full and he doesn't have a problem.

I want to switch, but I don't want to just have busy industries, Consolidated Container has plenty of switching by itself, the other two industries are there for variety.

Justin;

You're modeling an industry that is very rail intensive. The Consolidated plant would be 100% full pretty much all the time, but you have ample room to work this industry on your plan and the switching involved is what makes it interesting. If all you did was pull 4 cars from the plant and spot 4 more in their place, you'd get bored with it very quickly. The interest and operation comes from having to spot cars at specific locations; pull some, re-spot some, move an empty from the upper dock to the lower dock for reloading, etc. It reminds me of switching the distilleries around here when we often had almost every track full of cars and little room to work.

Jack Hill's excellent descriptions of how they worked this industry on the GET is a great way to learn about prototype switching operations.

Having one busy industry and then one or two that only receive cars now and then is very prototypical. Just because you have a dozen industries on your layout would not mean that every one of them would be switched every day. Small lumber dealers and similar facilities might only receive one car a month.

Get your track, put it down temporarily and try it out. If it turns out that it doesn't work for you then try something else. The plan looks good and should work just fine if you're happy with it.

Thanks Ed, I am probably just going to build the area around consolidated container for now, and then build the right leg of the layout later.

I now have enough money to get the turnouts, but Modeltrainstuff is sold out of insulfrog large radius right-hand turnouts, and they don't even list insulfrog large radius left-hand turnouts. I would go with electrofrog, but that's what my last turnouts were and I had alot of problems with them.

Should I just wait until they restock or should I go with medium turnouts?

Justinmiller171 Wrote:...Should I just wait until they restock or should I go with medium turnouts?

I recommend you go with the electro frog. They are the save route to go. If you had problems in the past let's see what went wrong and fix it.

Justinmiller171 Wrote:Thanks Ed, I am probably just going to build the area around consolidated container for now, and then build the right leg of the layout later.

I now have enough money to get the turnouts, but Modeltrainstuff is sold out of insulfrog large radius right-hand turnouts, and they don't even list insulfrog large radius left-hand turnouts. I would go with electrofrog, but that's what my last turnouts were and I had alot of problems with them.

Should I just wait until they restock or should I go with medium turnouts?

Justin;
I was just looking at M. B. Klein's web site and see what you mean. Another hobby shop that I've ordered from quite a bit over the past few years is First Hobby http://www.firsthobby.com and they do show having the code 100 large radius insul-frog turnouts in stock for $20.89 each. You might try them. They have always promptly filled my orders, but some of their prices on locomotives, cars, etc. are higher then M. B. Klein. Go to their web site; select Trains, HO Scale, Track, then Peco and you'll see them listed.

If you want to go with the electro-frog, and you really want the longer turnouts, then you should be fine. As Reinhard said, if you have a problem with them, then we'll figure out a way to solve it. Just remember that you need insulated joints on the two rails coming from the frog. You'll also have to have power feeders to your track beyond the frog. If you go with the electro-frogs, you won't be able to do like me and just have one set of power feeders to operate the whole layout on a temporary basis.

I have a bunch of the medium radius Peco turnouts (both insul-frog and electro-frog) and they look and operate just fine. Using them would allow you to gain a little length on your track plan (8 5/8in vs 10 1/8in), so if that's all you can get right now, it would be something to consider. Even 60ft long cars look just fine going through the medium radius turnouts. I originally was using just the medium radius turnouts, but switched to the large radius turnouts, just for appearance more than anything.

Your other option would be to go with the code 83 track, but I know you'd be looking at a big price difference. $26.59 for a No. 6 insul-frog code 83 turnout vs $20.99 for the code 100 large radius turnout. And of course there is a fair price difference for the flex track too. Tough to be on a budget for such an expensive hobby. Student or Old Foggy Retiree like me; we have to watch our money.

Thanks Ed, Caboose hobbies has Peco code 100 insulfrog large radius turnouts for 21.05. I am pretty sure this is where I will order them from, I have heard good things around them and they have been in business for awhile now.

I really want insulfrog for the reason that Ed mentioned, I want as little wiring as possible.

Justinmiller171 Wrote:Thanks Ed, Caboose hobbies has Peco code 100 insulfrog large radius turnouts for 21.05. I am pretty sure this is where I will order them from, I have heard good things around them and they have been in business for awhile now.

I really want insulfrog for the reason that Ed mentioned, I want as little wiring as possible.

I forgot about Caboose Hobbies Justin. I've ordered from them many times too. Seems like it takes a long time to get the orders though; over a week with CH, compared to a couple of days with M. B. Klein or First Hobby, but that's a darn good price on the turnouts.

I've found the large radius insul-frogs to be very reliable and saw no need to use the electro-frog as I don't have any short wheel base locomotives that might stall in them. As you know, I've been operating my layout on a temporary basis for some time now and never have a loco stall in the turnouts.

Track has remained surprising clean in spite of being down here in the basement (tends to be very dusty because of the gas heat). I clean the track one time after making any changes by simply wiping the rail with a soft cloth dampened with either 70% or 91% alcohol and it stays clean. I never use any sort of abrasive, such as a Bright Boy or fine sand paper to clean my track, since you're pitting and scoring the rail when you do that. Hum? Not sure how I got off on that tangent....

Justin - Hornby do some spring wire clips that effectively turn dead frogs into live frogs - they may not be available in USA, but I'm sure that someone in UK could send you a couple of packets, they look like this when fitted Look on Ebay for Hornby R8232 electronic point clips

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